Tony-Nominated Jazz Singer Cleo Laine Passes Away at 97

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Dame Cleo Laine, the Tony-nominated performer and acclaimed jazz singer, has passed away at 97. Her death was confirmed by her children, Jacqui and Alec. She was predeceased by her husband and collaborator, John Dankworth, in 2010.

Throughout her career, Laine was best known for her jazz stylings, which won her a Grammy Award in 1986 for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female. Born in a London suburb, Laine showed early singing talent, nurtured by her Jamaican father and English mother. In her 20s, she auditioned for a band led by musician John Dankworth, under whose banner she performed until 1958, when the two were married.

She appeared in plays and musicals in London and on Broadway and originated the role of Princess Puffer in the Broadway hit musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," for which she received a Tony nomination. She previously appeared in Cleo on Broadway, her one-woman show, which played in 1977. Other regional theater credits included A Little Night Music and Into the Woods, in which she played The Witch. 

Her extensive discography included an album of Stephen Sondheim songs, conducted by Jonathan Tunick, Porgy & Bess with Ray Charles, and Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, for which she was nominated for a Grammy. She also appeared on a 1993 cast album of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town, led by Tyne Daly.

In addition to her Grammy win, she received many other honors, including an OBE in 1979, and was made a dame in 1997.